3 September 2015

Haze, Haze, Go Away!

Hazy days in
Malaysia are not pleasant at all. At
around this time of year we are plagued with the stuff which is the product of
forest fires in Indonesia. The smoke and
dust from the fires is spread across the Straights of Malacca and blankets
Malaysia in a pea-souperesque fog that is thoroughly unpleasant. It causes dry eyes and skin, a sore throat
and can lead to breathing problems.

Picking the children up from school, the mountains are very close (the closest
are 500m or less) and can typically be seen with no problems.

Haze is tracked by
the Department of the Environment and the meteorological office and generally
reported on in all television, newspaper and radio weather reports. We got a lot of haze in Miri last year, a
result of forest burning in Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) spreading the
pollution towards us but I, rather naively, thought that here in the Peninsula,
with the sea separating us from the problem, we would be ok. Sadly there were over 380 reported hotspots
(burning zones) on Sumatra today and the prevailing winds are sending it all
over towards us. Malaysia is not
completely innocent in all of this, of course, as burning does go on here as
well but the same hot spot survey reported only 7 patches of burning taking
place in Malaysia at the current time. The haze problems started last week and the papers say that we can expect to have it with us for a while yet.

The air quality in
Ipoh has suffered accordingly. At the
present time our Air Pollution Index is 102 so just registering as ‘Unhealthy’. By 200 it is considered ‘Very Unhealthy’ but
I must admit to having no desire to experience those levels. Even at these lowish levels I have noticed that my eyes are sore and not
tolerating my lenses particularly well. I may have to take the plunge and be seen in public wearing my glasses! I am just pleased that none of the
family are asthmatic.

A view from the Perak Cave Temple that is usually clear....

Visibility is also
quite reduced, I took a visitor to see the famous Perak Cave Temple today and
the view across the city was quite restricted.
Schools are still allowing children to play outside but I have noticed a
few people wearing masks or covering their faces and these numbers will
increase if the pollution index creeps up (we are only at the bottom end of ‘Unhealthy’
and nowhere near ‘Very Unhealthy’). For
the moment I am just making sure the family drink a lot of water, stay inside
where possible, keep doors and windows shut and using plenty of moisturiser and
moisturising eye drops. We have not stopped our evening runs just yet but we are going out for shorter periods of time and we are not taking the baby out to feed the fish in our local lake.

Hopefully the problem will resolve itself soon....

.... Or not. 10 days later and our haze problem has only got worse. Visibility is now down to around 600 meters (I can now not see the mountains in the first photograph) and the readings are high, not yet in the 200s but we can taste the pollution. The children are still going to school but are being kept indoors all day. To be honest I think they are better there as we have some broken window catches in our home and very few ACs so air quality wise they are better in the larger building. Needless to say we are not running, not walking the pets and I am thinking about buying masks for the children. Our poor older dog is suffering the most, she is wheezing badly and finding it quite difficult to breathe after even the shortest trip outside. The weather service tells us that we can expect this to clear soon with the Monsoon and change in winds on its way. It certainly can't be soon enough.

Hi there Azizi - what a coincidence. Enjoy your time in Astana, we are certainly enjoying Ipoh! Re Astana it depends on what you are looking for. We lived very close to the Baiterek as this was close to work and near Keruen for shopping etc and we could walk to the main restaurants even in the winter. Many other people prefer the right bank and Samal areas though. It really depends on budget and where your friends/colleagues are located.

We lived in Arailim the first of the three brown buildings on Saraishik street just opposite Arai park. We had heated parking (no space we paid the parking attendant to find us a spot every month but it worked out fine) a corner shop, green grocer and were less than 10 minutes walk to/from Keruen, Rafe cafe (who deliver by the way), cafe star etc. There are very few expats there and the building appears run down compared to highville but you get more for your space (we paid $2000 for 200sqm) and people are friendly. Premium the apartment next door is a little slicker. Friends of ours lived in Nursaya (very nice) Diplomat, decent enough, Nur Otan (ok) Northern Lights (a bit utilitarian) and various other buildings in the area. Your best vet is to look on a rental website There is one called realtor.kz or realty.kz or similar. You should be able to find advertisements for it in lifts around the city. Good luck.

About Me

I am a no longer 30 something global soul, a perpetual expat. I was born in the Netherlands to a Dutch/Irish Family. Since then I have lived in Norway, Nigeria, Turkey and Venezuela. I went to school and university in the UK. We decided to have an adventure and took our children and the dog(s) to live abroad, first to Kazakhstan and then to various locations in Malaysia. Our current home is in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
This blog is about how we muddle through daily life as expats and how things have changed from the adventures of my childhood.